Trip Report: Radiance of the Seas - Alaska

After reading so many reports before our cruise, I decided to do one of our cruise aboard the Radiance of the Seas.

Our cruise was a 7 night Northbound aboard the Radiance of the Seas. It left Fri May 30th and returned June 6th.

We are a family of 3 and this was our first Alaska cruise. It was simply amazing.

We flew in to Vancouver a day early from Philadelphia, with a stop in Phoenix.

Some flight pictures, PHL - PHX:

PHX - YVR:

Mount Rainier

We arrived in Vancouver at approximately 1:15 and by the time we got a cab and got to our hotel it was a little after 2.

We stayed at the Marriott Pinnacle Downtown. Very nice hotel and great service! Some views from the hotel:

The bellman recommended for us to eat at the Cactus Club Cafe near the convention center - awesome place and good food.

It was rainy and overcast, since we didn't have a ton of time in Vancouver, we obviously tried to make the most of it.

This picture was taken the next morning, might explain why it doesn't look so overcast :cool:

After lunch we walked around the Olympic Cauldron area and around the seawall leading towards Stanley Park.

Later in the day, we took a walk to Gastown, really cool historical district. Some cool shops and restaurants.

It was almost about time for dinner, so we went to Cadero's. A nice seafood restaurant right on the water.

We sat on this side deck for dinner:

We were pretty exhausted after dinner from our travel day so we just returned to the hotel to get a good night's sleep.

We will be doing the same itinerary next June on Radiance. Looking forward to the rest of your adventure. Great start so far!!

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

Will be doing this cruise next May and so looking forward to reading your review and seeing your photos. :)

We arrived in Vancouver at approximately 1:15 and by the time we got a cab and got to our hotel it was a little after 2.

 

We stayed at the Marriott Pinnacle Downtown. Very nice hotel and great service!

We just stayed at the Marriott Pinnacle too for our roundtrip Radiance Alaska cruise - 1 day before and 2 days afterwards - in May. Great place to stay in Vancouver.

We got a glimpse of Radiance as she arrived the morning of our cruise...our photo looks remarkably a lot like yours...must have been taken from the Concierge Lounge like us...or a room nearby...glad you enjoyed Vancouver!

Alaska is on our list for next year so I will be anxiously waiting to read your trip report!

Thanks for the report!

Embarkation Day.

Next morning we went out for a walk around 6am.

It really was beautiful at that hour.

This was one busy seaplane airport,

Planes were continuously landing and taking off:

While we were out, we watched Radiance of the Seas, along with the HAL Zaandam pull into Canada Place.

The Zaandam came in first:

Then we spotted the top of Radiance:

Passing Brockton Point Lighthouse:

We walked out to the end of Canada Place, hoping to get a view of our cabin for the next week. Our cabin was 8102, directly next to the glass elevators. So if you look to the right of the elevators, we were the second one up.

After seeing the Radiance, we got breakfast at a nice place looking out over the side of Canada Place. It was called Bellaggio Cafe and it was good.

We then did a walk to Stanley Park and out to the Brockton Point lighthouse and the totem poles.

Looking back at downtown:

We only walked out as far as the lighthouse. And if you are able to tell from this pic, we didn't cover nearly all of Stanley Park:

(The Lighthouse is at the bottom right corner of Stanley Park)

We stopped at the totem poles.

Then we did a little loop out towards the lighthouse.

The Lighthouse:

Canada Place and the Radiance:

The convention center (with the grass roof):

Now it was time to board. It probably took us about an hour and a half to get on the ship. I wasn't bad at all. After getting lunch and unpacking, we went up to the pool deck for sail away and the party.

SailAway:

The Zaandam followed closely behind.

Passing Stanley Park:

Approaching Lion's Gate Bridge:

Almost there!

Another view of Vancouver:

Enjoying photos and narrative.

Keith

Enjoying your review!!!

It's pleasant deja vu of good recent memories...thanks for your continued sharing! :)

Enjoying your review. We are going back to Alaska on the Radiance in July 2015.

Really enjoying this review. This cruise is on our bucket list, and we can hardly wait. For now I guess we will just enjoy this vicariously by your review.:)

Craig

DAY 2

Cruising the Inside Passage

We got room service just this one day and it wasn't that good so the rest of the week we ate at the Windjammer (always pretty good).

Then...

Our first Alaskan wildlife sighting!!

Dall's Porpoises

The rest of the day we just explored the ship. For lunch, we ate at Park Cafe. And yes, the roast beef sandwiched lived up to their expectations.

The pool deck. Didn't get much use this cruise..

Typical picture...

Thanks for posting your review getting ready to hit subscribe

Love the pictures thus far

I've read all the reviews from last year and have been anxiously awaiting new posts for this year:D:D:D

Thanks for this review and looking forward to reading more! Been reading lots of reviews about Alaska as much as I can. I will be cruising for the first time with Rhapsody of the Seas to Alaska on July and I'm so so excited!

Subscribing - can't wait to hear more :)

Enjoying your review. We are going back to Alaska on the Radiance in July 2015.

I think you have a typo in your signature line of upcoming cruises. You posted that your Alaska cruise was leaving Jul 19' date=' 2015. We are booked on the JULY 17, 2015 cruise on Radiance. Either you made a typo or you will get to the port two days after it has left.... :eek:

We were on the Radiance in August 2012 but did the Southbound Route from Seward to Vancouver. It was a fantastic experience. Can't wait to do it again. The ship is beautiful and Icy Strait Point is an awesome port of call. The whale watching/bear watch combo tour we did there was outstanding!

I'm looking forward to the rest of your review. Your pictures are great! What type of camera did you use!

cruiserccl1212 - Thank you for posting a link to this thread on the Alaska forum! Great pictures and info that those of us who do not follow RCI cruises would otherwise have missed. Hopefully you will post additional links when you post your updates.